They’re beating the tape with the ugly stick as emerging markets continue to get clobbered. Bonds and MBS are rallying, with the 10 year trading at 2.65%.

We had some mixed earnings reports, with good news out of Google, a miss out of Mastercard, and a warning from Wal Mart.

Personal income came in flat in December (versus a .2% forecast), while personal spending rose .4%. The savings rate dipped to 3.9%. As I have said before – this is how recessions end. Spending increases and then wages increase. The PCE deflator came in in at 1.1%, showing inflation remains a non-problem.

Squabbling among Senate Democrats probably means that nothing will get done about the GSEs this year. Left wing Democrats like Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown will refuse to back any plan to re-organize the GSEs unless it guarantees affordable loans for most buyers. This means they want whatever entity that replaces Fannie and Fred to be more than simply a re-insurer of privately insured mortgages – they want to continue the social engineering role of the GSEs. Not all Democrats are onboard with this idea, let alone Republicans who rightly view government activism as a contributor to the housing bubble. The left would be more than happy to continue the status quo, with Mel Watt (a CRA guy) running the show.

One of the implications of what Krugman says is very interesting, and almost certainly not something Krugman would ever acknowledge. If it is true that:

an immigrant worker is paid roughly the value of the additional goods and services he or she enables the U.S. economy to produce. That means that there isn’t anything left over to increase the income of the people already here.

…and it is also true that:

My second negative point is that immigration reduces the wages of domestic workers who compete with immigrants. That’s just supply and demand: we’re talking about large increases in the number of low-skill workers relative to other inputs into production, so it’s inevitable that this means a fall in wages.

…then it must be true that low-skill domestic workers are actually being paid more than the additional value of the goods and services they allow the US to produce, and are hence a drag on the economy, particularly relative to immigrants.

Consider the implications of that on Krugman’s advocacy for a higher minimum wage.

Alethia is right about the particular facts about the massacres and the role of South Korea’s military dictatorship, but is intentionally being blind about the reality of the North and the Soviet Union’s planning to invade the South all along.

Space was unpersuadable. OWS is just against crony capitalism and rent seeking but is fine with inequality provided it was earned.

The root of the debate was arguing over whether or not President Obama was invoking OWS in his SOTU. I argued no as he gave the classic merit defense of inequality as a throw away line. Even as lip service, it was straight out of the free market boilerplate rhetoric.

“Report May Ease Way to Approval of Keystone Pipeline
By CORAL DAVENPORTJAN. 31, 2014

WASHINGTON — The State Department released a report on Friday that could pave the way toward President Obama’s approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

The long-awaited environmental impact statement on the project concludes that approval or denial of the pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to the Gulf Coast, is unlikely to prompt oil companies to change the rate of their extraction of carbon-heavy tar sands oil, a State Department official said. Either way, the tar sands oil, which produces significantly more planet-warming carbon pollution than standard methods of drilling, is coming out of the ground, the report says.”

The news will also be sobering to investors in the municipal debt market. Lending money to cities and states has suddenly become a much riskier proposition. Cities and states are going to have to pay higher interest rates as bondholders will (correctly) reason that they will be sent to the back of the line for repayment should anything go wrong.

You are a maker. Creative from the day you were born, you spend most of your time thinking about the world you live in. You are open to new ideas and value beauty and originality more than most. We both know you’re not really the office type, so give yourself some room to create. Other occupations: director, producer, advertiser.

You are a thinker, in constant search of knowledge and answers to life’s most illusive questions. You love to analyze everything, testing out theories and pushing mental boundaries. Basically you’re an Einstein, but then again you probably already knew that.

You are a giver, a justice seeker. You spend more time thinking about others than yourself, and more than anything just want what you’re doing to help someone in some way. Essentially, you is kind, you is smart, you is important. Other occupations: social worker, judge.

You are an artist, creative juices are oozing out of you. You’d make just as good of a designer as you would an architect, as long as you get to create something. You live your life like Michelangelo, constantly looking for the sculpture within the stone. Other occupations: architect, editor.

Why? I immediately thought of something Kevin Smith (Silent Bob) said during one of his podcasts with Jason Mewes (Jay), a recovering addict, that i caught in person a 2-3 years ago: you want to play in an adult world, manage your shit and accept the consequences.

And second what Scott said. Although I wonder how much a prop bet on “the first play from scrimmage will result in a safety” paid off.